Music to my ears

When she said 'but I don't feel ill at all' this afternoon!

More excellent progress today: when I arrived at 11, she'd already been out of bed and walked to her chair and back. The drip which was attached to her hand has gone, and this afternoon they took the oxygen away. She was allowed to start drinking clear fluids other than water and they turned off the tube which goes through her nose to her stomach, so her stomach has to get used now to having contents again. If her stomach responds well, that tube will go in the morning - leaving her with just one drip in her neck and the epidural. One of the weirdest things was the complete absence of itchiness yesterday - for 2 or 3 weeks she's been incredibly itchy (caused by the jaundice) and the first thing she started doing when she came round from the anaesthetic, was scratch. Yesterday it was all gone - just like that. Today she started again, but fortunately it was something to do with the painkillers she was receiving, and when they changed it, it stopped within an hour. We've been told to expect a setback tomorrow or Friday, which is quite common, but so far, the staff are really pleased with her progress.

She's just so much better in herself though - on Tuesday morning when she was still in ICU, she told me she wanted to go to a spa place we've been before, years back, as her skin's gone very sensitive and they have lots of whirlpools with calming potions and such. It was the first time in weeks that she seemed to be thinking about the future and look forward to it. Today she wanted to read a few of the catalogues I'd brought along for her from Britain. When she spent an hour reading the seed catalogue and choosing different packets of seeds, I knew I had the old mum back. And boy, does it feel good.